A CBS Finale Round-Up...

I hope all of you are having a great Memorial Day. I thought I would take this opportunity to catch up on some season finales that I haven’t had the chance to comment on.

We’ll start with some CBS finales…

“Close to Home”: “Hallelujah…”
I have always said that whenever you hear the song “Hallelujah” on a TV show it means that something bad has just happened, or something bad is about to happen.

In the case of “Close to Home,” it was both. The bad thing that just happened was the death of Maureen (Kimberly Elise). The bad thing that was about to happen was the cancellation of the show the next week.

I only saw the last half-hour, so I didn’t see how Maureen died, but it was apparently the culmination of the story involving Conlon’s campaign manager (Jonathan Silverman). Ironically, it was Maureen that the promos had singled out for death weeks before, so clearly she had a giant target painted on her already.

Maureen’s endorsement of Conlon from beyond the grave (via her videotaped deposition) was pretty powerful, but I would’ve liked to have seen Conlon (David James Elliott) be a bad guy after all. It would’ve been a nice twist.

But the final scene with the remaining cast members (and Annabeth’s potential new love interest) toasting Maureen’s memory was a great way to close out the season, as well as the show…

“How I Met Your Mother” Turns a Corner
I have always found “How I Met Your Mother” to be one of the most frustrating shows on TV.

It’s a cute romantic comedy, but it’s hard to root for the main couple—Ted and Robin—when you know that they don’t end up together, since we learned in the series premiere that Robin is not the mother of Ted’s children.

In the season finale, the show fixed all of that by breaking Ted and Robin up for good and setting the stage for the mysterious mother to finally make her appearance. I had always speculated that Lilly would turn out to be the mother, but the fact that she and Marshall actually got married and the adult Ted narrator (Bob Saget) said he had yet to meet the mother officially shot that theory down. Now the show has a fresh start…

Which is probably why CBS decided to give it another season. Personally, I think it earned it…

“Numb3rs” Attempts a “24” Twist…And Fails
I have to say from the beginning this finale sorely missed Peter MacNicol’s Larry. But since his absence insured MacNicol would appear in the “24” finale, I quickly got over it—even if the show didn’t.

This show usually makes my head hurt with all of its math equations, but this one leaned more on all out action—including a heroic turn by Charlie. There was math too, and I have to admit I actually followed most of it (which is really scary)…

But then, somewhere out of left field, the show introduced a “24” twist—a mole in the FBI. Since I’m not a regular viewer, it’s possible this twist was more set up than I know, but it seemed mostly out of nowhere when Coby was revealed as a spy for the Chinese (They’re becoming quite the popular villains these days, aren’t they?). And since I like Coby, that just made me hate it even more…

But that twist wasn’t as inconsistent as some of the other scenes in the episode. I know Don has emotional issues, but how could he have not even been fazed that Coby had betrayed them? And surely we’re going to get more details next season about Megan’s assignment since we didn’t get any in the finale. Plus, where was Don’s girlfriend after he outed their relationship the week before?

Maybe I need a mathematical formula to answer those questions…

“NCIS”: Huh?
I have always said that “NCIS” is the best show I’m not watching. It’s smart, funny and sophisticated…

Too bad none of those things were on display in the season finale…

Because the team was split up, doing different things, we didn’t get to enjoy the camaraderie that makes the show so special. I love Tony, but making him the focus of the episode just didn’t work. If this was Donald Bellisario’s way of telling Mark Harmon that he didn’t need him, I think we all know now why he resigned.

Since I’m not a regular viewer I don’t know much about who The Frog is. So the big revelation that Tony’s girlfriend is his daughter meant nothing to me and was a TOTAL letdown.

I really hope that Chas. Johnson gets the show back on track next season…

“The King” Abdicates His Throne
As series finales go, “The King of Queens” sure started out pretty seriously as Doug tried to deal with Carrie’s betrayal of him…

But in the middle of all of the seriousness, the show did manage to sneak in some pretty funny moments. There was the running joke of Lou Ferrigno telling everyone what a happy day it was, Spence and Danny realizing they missed each other as roommates, and of course, the wonderful Stiller and Meara together again as Arthur switched brides.

And although I didn’t totally like the whole story of Doug and Carrie racing to China to adopt the baby and all the marriage drama, the ending was a good one as we visited Doug and Carrie one year later, overwhelmed by two young children. The door opened and Arthur walked through, carrying his suitcase, saying only “It didn’t work out.”

The clips were also a nice touch, but I think they could have been integrated with the show a little better. Or CBS could have done the right thing and gave the show the true send-off it deserved with an actual clip show. Maybe if they had realized the great ratings these final episodes were going to pull in, they would have…